Soothed with the sound, the king grew vain; Fought all his battles o'er again, The master saw the madness rise, He chose a mournful Muse He sung Darius great and good, Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen, 60 The mighty master smiled, to see That love was in the next degree; 'Twas but a kindred sound to move, For pity melts the mind to love. Softly sweet, in Lydian measures,* Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures. 80 War, he sung, is toil and trouble, Honor but an empty bubble; Never ending, still beginning, Fighting still, and still destroying; If the world be worth thy winning, Think, O think it worth enjoying: Lovely Thais sits beside thee, Take the good the gods provide thee! -The many rend the skies with loud applause; So Love was crowned, but Music won the cause. The prince, unable to conceal his pain, Who caused his care, 90 And sighed and looked, sighed and looked, Sighed and looked, and sighed again: At length, with love and wine at once oppressed, The vanquished victor sunk upon her breast. Behold a ghastly band, Each a torch in his hand! 4 Lydian measures. A soft and effeminate type of Greek music. Soon as the evening shades prevail, The Moon takes up the wondrous tale; 10 What though in solemn silence all (1712) RULE BRITANNIA JAMES THOMSON 20 [In memory of British soldiers who fell in the War of the Austrian Succession, 1745-46.] How sleep the brave, who sink to rest By fairy hands their knell is_rung, ODE TO EVENING WILLIAM COLLINS 9 While Spring shall pour his showers, as oft he wont, And bathe thy breathing tresses, meekest While Summer loves to sport While sallow Autumn fills thy lap with leaves; Or Winter, yelling through the troublous air, Affrights thy shrinking train And rudely rends thy robes; 4 folding-star. The star that marked the time for taking in the flocks. |